It's our first SUNDAY COMMENTS Page of the new year ...
(Time's been scarce ... and so have we ... but as pointed out yesterday, there are still THOUSANDS of articles here on the site available to read ... check 'em out!!!)
And we DO have a couple of things planned for this week as well ... including a special Friday the 13th feature ... and a double feature on Saturday, the 14th as well ...
So please continue to stop by ...
And if you don't see something new, check out some of our "oldies but goodies!"
Heart and The Supremes are just two of the artists who will be honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards at a special Grammy Awards Ceremony being held on February 4th at The Wilshire Ebell Theatre.
Also receiving recognition this year for outstanding achievement are Nirvanna (seriously?), producer Nile Rodgers and photographer Henry Diltz, who shared photos and entries from his personal journals with our readers last year, thanks to his curator, Gary Strobl! Recently passed Stax Records co-founder Jim Stewart and artists Bobby McFerrin, Ma Rainey, Slick Rick “The Ruler” and Ellis Marsalis round out the list.
It's all part of Grammy Week next month.
Tommy Roe's new CD is now available (but only thru Solar Music ... see the link below)
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It includes the title track from his last LP, "Devil's Soul Pile" (which is a GREAT track) along with a few more new cuts (and a great remake of his 1969 smash "Heather Honey."
Here are a couple of promos he sent me ...
Order your copy here: solarmusic.com/tommy-roe/
Of course, January 8th is Elvis' birthday (incredibly, he would have been 88 years old today!) ...
But it is ALSO David Bowie's birthday. (Hard to believe that we lost David SEVEN YEARS AGO!!! How is this even possible?!?!) He died two days after his 69th birthday in 2016.
FH Reader Mike Wolstein sent us this cool GIF of Bowie's ever-changing look throughout the years ...
I'm calling it "David Bowie: CHANGES" ...
While Bowie never got the chance to sing with Elvis, he DID do a very memorable duet with Bing Crosby in 1982! (Several rock critics at the time made the remark "OK ... now I've seen EVERYTHING!!!") kk
[Look for a VERY special Elvis Presley piece this coming Saturday, the 14th, as part of our Saturday Double Feature!!!]
It’s a fear I’ve addressed several times before …
What happens when today’s rather misinformed generation is responsible for keeping our music alive but without the “I LIVED this song” aspect to help them do so?
Sure enough, this week’s Billboard Magazine talks about the significant increase in streams and downloads for The Beatles’ White Album track “Glass Onion” thanks to its use in the latest Netflix “Knives Out” mystery.
Except they COMPLETELY blew it when they said “ ‘Looking through the bent-backed tulips / To see how the other half lives / Looking through a glass onion,’ Paul McCartney sings on The Beatles’ White Album classic “Glass Onion” …
Paul McCartney didn’t sing this song … John Lennon did! In fact, it’s a John Lennon song all the way, referencing previous (and even then-current) Beatles tunes in his lyrics. (For the record, it has since been fixed … but my God, if Billboard Magazine doesn’t know this stuff, we’re all doomed!!! Let's face it ... They’ve already published chart data falsely establishing Drake, Taylor Swift and The Cast of Glee as bigger hit recording acts than The Beatles as it is!!! And now THIS?!?! My guess is they got flooded with letters pointing out their error and then went back and made the correction … but when you’re Billboard Magazine, which we’re all supposed to accept as “The Music Bible,” this sort of thing just isn’t supposed to happen!!!)
The article goes on to say that “Glass Onion” experienced a 167% increase in weekly U.S. on-demand streams during the week of Dec. 23 - 29, jumping to over 160,000 streams after earning a little over 60,000 the previous week. Thanks to the same Netflix series, David Bowie’s track “Star” (which was used in a dance sequence featuring Kate Hudson’s character), was up 60% during the same week, while The Bee Gees’ “To Love Somebody” (which was featured in its original version in the film), scored a 37% bump, up to nearly 259,000 streams during the week ending Dec. 29.
And the Christmas Hits just keep setting new records (although all of that should stop now that we’ve passed the first of the year, leaving the charts safe for at least the next ten months until this year’s blitz kicks in.)
Billboard also reports that Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” has just logged its 12th week at #1 … while Nat “King” Cole’s “The Christmas Song” returns to The Top Ten some 59 years and six months since his last Top Ten Hit!
And here’s an interesting statistic …
Mariah Carey’s hit becomes only the second holiday hit to hold down the top spot for four consecutive weeks … and it is the first to do so in 64 years, after “The Chipmunk Song,” by David Seville & the Chipmunks, spent four straight weeks at No. 1 beginning in December of 1958.
And, while vintage Christmas tunes have been ruling the charts for the last month of the year for several years now since Billboard “relaxed” their chart methodology, now allowing holiday songs to chart alongside the current hits of the day, there were TEN songs in particular that experienced significant gains in sales, airplay, downloads and streams from last year to this …
These include Gene Autry's "Here Comes Santa Claus" (up about 53.5% over last year with just over 70 million on-demand streams), Elvis Presley's "Blue Christmas" (up nearly 49%), "Deck The Halls" by Nat "King" Cole (up 41%), "This Christmas" by Donny Hathaway (up 53.5%), "Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!" by Dean Martin (up about 32%), Frank Sinatra's version of "Jingle Bells" (up 31%), Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas" (up just under 30%) and Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree," which enjoyed almost 203 million streams!
Even Mariah Carey's seasonal chart-topper "All I Want For Christmas Is You" experienced a 29.5% increase over last year. Amazing!
Congratulations to FH Reader Colin Donahue ...
He just won a copy of Davie Allan's brand new CD "Turn It Up!"
You can order YOUR own copy of Davie's new disc here:
The official release date for my latest recording is today, 1/6/23
And it's on Compact Disc this time!
More info here: http://davieallan.com
TURN IT UP!
$13.00 EACH
(Includes U.S. Shipping & Handling)
MAKE CHECKS OR MONEY ORDERS PAYABLE TO:
DAVIE ALLAN (PLEASE SPELL THE NAME RIGHT!)
AND MAIL TO:
DAVIE ALLAN
230 Cantor
Irvine, CA 92620
Or: SEND PAYPAL TO: melodicgrunge@yahoo.com
For over a decade, Carole King was perfectly content to write hits (and we're talking about some VERY MAJOR HITS here!) for other artists ... with only minor aspirations to perform her music herself. (A fluke Top 40 Hit in 1962, "It Might As Well Rain Until September" was her only successful solo venture on the pop charts ... until "Tapestry" hit in 1971 ... and turned her entire world as she knew it upside down!)
Shyness about performing in front of an audience was also one of the reasons given for her reluctance to pursue the limelight as a recording artist ...
So imagine the condition of her nerves when, in 1973, she found herself as the featured performer at a Free Concert in New York's Central Park in front of about 100,000 fans!!! (Hers was the first-ever Free Concert in Central Park, an ongoing tradition for decades now!)
That moment was captured on film and is now being made available again through various streaming services for all to enjoy.
More details here: https://theseconddisc.com/2023/01/06/way-over-yonder-carole-kings-1973-central-park-concert-coming-to-theatres-streaming/
kk:
You Didn't Mention My Favorite Version Of "WHAT ARE YOU DOING NEW YEAR'S EVE" by DANTE & THE EVERGREENS (12/31/1960)
I Saw A You Tube Clip of The Beatles On The Jack Parr Show (On Film) From January of 1964 Before Appearing On The Ed Sullivan Show in February of 1964 (Live) Jack Filmed Them In England Because He Thought They Were Funny, Not Because Of The Music. He Went On To Say That He Didn't Think Ringo Got A Full Share Of The Profits.
Here's Another Countdown I Have Problems With ...
Rolling Stone's Top 200 Singers
Here Are A Few Examples:
#71 = Roy Orbison; #154 = Dion; #174 = Buddy Holly
FB
Sean Ross tells us about a new three-part Soft Rock Documentary that's running on Paramount + ...
I will admit to likely a fair amount of this music back in the day ... it certainly beat Disco at the time (although once disco hit, I leaned more toward the hard rock side of things) Still, after my British Invasion phase, spilling over into heavier rock by the late '60's, I did enjoy the soft rock / singer-songwriter era of the early '70's.
But today I can't listen to "Yacht Rock" ... I just can't embrace the concept. (This is especially true on Sirius/XM ... yet I can listen to their channel "The Bridge" all day long, especially since they've been adding many of the stories behind the songs, told by the artists themselves.)
Still, we WILL have to check out this new series ... it sounds like it is very well done. (kk)
(That being said, I will ALSO admit that Dan Hill's "Sometimes When We Touch" is probably one of my LEAST favorite songs of this genre!!! lol!) kk
